Taxes & Temptation

Woohoo! I've now made it exactly one whole day without cheating at all! It's pretty sad that I feel so good about it.

One would think that when one's children are no longer 'children' that one would be spending less time taking care of said children. Somewhat true, until tax time. It seems that Dad and I are way too nice and volunteered to do all of their taxes this year. Last night at around five in the morning we had our "What on earth were we thinking??" moment. Unfortunately, it was too late, the onus was on us. Son#1 moved out to NY last spring so he had to deal with partial tax years in two states...which is why we had originally offered to help him navigate tax world. Son#2 is flat out busy at school right now a few weeks from finals with a part-time job and arranging his summer internship (and he's an RA). All of his W-2's come here so it's easier to just do it. Unless of couse you're missing some numbers, which we were. Son#3's we did together (he's at home), son#4 probably doesn't even have to file (do you believe we haven't even looked at it yet). The other reason we offered is because we always use Turbo Tax which makes the job SO fast seeing that we, as a family, have up to 11 returns to file counting state and federal. It keeps it all on record for the next year as well, which is nice. Hey wait. They should pay me for this little commercial.

Of course, I was NOT counting on the laptop deciding randomly to pretend that it couldn't identify the printer it was connected to. Nor was I counting on the printer running out of ink halfway through printing once we finally got the laptop to recognize it.

I was annoyed that we had waited to do this stuff. We waited on ours because we knew that we owed instead of getting a refund this year, but we still should have done it all ahead of time. So I was freezing, annoyed at myself, tired, and needed comfort food. But good sense and knowing that I would have to confess any wayward eating to Ames, thus losing the contest, kept me from straying into my refrigerator or the 5 bags of goldfish lurking in my pantry. I drank countless cups of hot tea instead, thereby guaranteeing that I would have to run to the, uh, ladies' room every 2-5 minutes until the taxes were done (or close, anyway) and I could hop in bed (just after 5:00 am) and get a few winks before I had to run to the bathroom yet again.

Anyway, I'm up and going (hmmmm, no pun intended, but it works) , drinking yet more tea and eschewing those pesky goldfish.

I have published my food log below. I promise not to post anything else on the blog until I get some more sleep. I get a littzzzle......zzzz...wordy when....zzz....I'm...zzzzzzzzz...zzz...zzzzz...


Morning
1/2 cup General Mills Fiber One
0
light n fit yogurt stawberry
1
Subtotal
1
Midday
4 oz raw farm-raised tilapia
2
1/4 cup cooked spinach
0
2 cup mixed baby greens
0
1 Tbsp Kraft Light Done Right Balsamic vinaigrette
.5
Subtotal
2.5
Evening
1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
0
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
0
2 tsp Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix
0
3/4 cup cooked white rice
3
3 oz cooked trimmed beef round steak or roast
4
1 large yellow pepper(s)
1
1/2 cup onion(s)
0
1/8 cup green hot chili peppers
0
1/3 cup canned tomato sauce
.5
1/8 cup fat-free sour cream
.5
1/4 cup salsa
0
3 cup mixed baby greens
.5
2 Tbsp Kraft Light Done Right Balsamic vinaigrette
1
ww tortilla
2
Subtotal
12.5
Snack
1/2 cup General Mills Fiber One
0
1 bar Weight Watchers Key lime sherbet & ice cream bar
1
15 items Tostitos Baked! Scoops tortilla chips
2
1 medium carrot(s)
0
1 cup carrot(s)
0
peach fiber one yogurt
1